You can feel it all around you - in the office, at the store, in a restaurant, and at home; it's May, and it's time to get active! Warmer weather is upon us, and we feel rejuvenated with an abundance of energy. What better time than May for Exercise is Medicine (EIM) Month and National Physical Fitness and Sports Month? Let's use this gift of increased energy and warmer weather to be more physically active.

EIM Month was launched in 2008 to celebrate May as a time for health care providers, fitness professionals, the public, and supporting organizations and constituents to recognize, emphasize and celebrate the valuable health benefits of exercise on a national scale.

Over the past few years, almost all 50 states, many cities, organizations and even some military bases have celebrated health and fitness in May by hosting a variety of organized events requiring physical activity to get people moving. This year we hope to involve every state!

Exercise is Medicine Month Spotlight

Art Anderssen's Wet 'n' Dry Fitness 'n' Fun, located in Punta Gorda, Florida, kicked off their EIM Month activities early this year. Their Dragon Boat team, the Drippin' Dragons, supported Exercise is Medicine Month while the EIM Network logo was emblazoned on the front of their team shirts during the 2nd Annual Dragon Boat Festival held on April 14. Punta Gorda issued its EIM Month proclamation on May 2nd,following Charlotte County's proclamation on April 24th.

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Be Active in May

A lot of great information was shared at the Health & Fitness Summit & Exposition this year. Here's a glimpse of what participants learned from the many topics presented. You might want to consider trying some of these when planning physical activities this month and beyond.

• Eccentric exercise and "going negative" in fitness routines: Instead of just putting the emphasis on curling or contracting motions, focus on slowly straightening or lowering the muscle. This technique can help you push through a training plateau. Examples of "eccentric exercise" include some of the following: walking downhill, doing single leg squats on an incline leg press or tricep dip on a bench, or doing a back extension on a Roman chair. This style of training can be good for injury protection. If you're injured, it can still be used on the healthy limb.
• Trends in high performance training: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) and conditioning is in demand. Two weeks of HIIT - that's alternate bursts of high- or low-intensity energy levels - improves your aerobic capacity the same amount as doing 6-8 weeks of endurance training. Incorporate HIIT to help build muscle and speed weight loss. During HIIT, a person consumes more oxygen than during slower, distance exercising. This can increase post-exercise metabolism, and research has actually shown that one session of HIIT can burn calories for 1.5 - 2.4 hours after exercise.
• Be More Active and Less Inactive: Adults in the US spend 60% of their waking time being sedentary, mainly sitting. Even adults who exercise do not meet the recommendations for daily physical activity. Throughout the day, find opportunities to reduce the time spent sitting. Stand up during phone calls or while sending emails, walk more, take the stairs, and park further away from places you're going. Increased interruptions in sedentary time have added benefits.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Building a Fit Nation

Capping May as the month of both Physical Fitness and Sports Month and Exercise is Medicine Month, Dr. Sanjay Gupta will speak May 30 at the 59th ACSM Annual Meeting and 3rd World Congress on Exercise is Medicine. Dr. Gupta, CNN's multiple Emmy award-winning chief medical correspondent, will speak on "Using the Power of the Media to Help Build a Fit Nation."

How are you celebrating Exercise is Medicine Month? Share your story with us!

Like a lively puppy that is thriving, joyously active and everywhere at once, Let's Move! has energized America with no sign of slowing down. In just a year, First Lady Michelle Obama's initiative has prompted families, individuals and organizations to take health into their own hands. Collectively, we're eating better and finding ways to be more physically active. It adds up to healthier lifestyles for a whole spectrum of people and reflects encouraging momentum in the fight against childhood obesity.

As more and more of us connect the dots - through Let's Move!, the National Physical Activity Plan, Exercise is Medicine (EIM) and countless other initiatives - we're helping the movement mature. Recounting success stories and lessons learned lets us share best practices. EIM on Campus connects colleges and universities with one another, but also with their local communities. Groups like the National Society of Physical Activity Practitioners in Public Health allow professionals to learn from one another and share resources.

We're learning not only from one another, but from new research about exercise, nutrition, physiology and motivation. This is essential to make sure our programs and policies will be effective. From molecular-level, basic science to studies of group interaction and epidemiology, new knowledge is providing a solid base of evidence to underpin our efforts.

Similarly, approaches to healthier lifestyles range from the granular to the global. We know that every bite we consume, every calorie expended, brings with it a health impact. Individual actions become habits, with immense effects on individuals over time. Family members influence one another, and whole communties can gain a collective consciousness or identity around healthy lifestyles (think Portland, Oregon, where bicycling is a shared passion).

A spectrum of solutions

Some of us emphasize physical activity and exercise, but we know that's just one factor in the health equation. Nutrition plays a huge role, as do tobacco and alcohol use, air quality and more. We've learned that all these elements must work together, and that healthy behaviors must become part of our everyday lives to be effective. And their adoption requires the kind of one-on-one modeling that happens in families, classrooms and circles of friends - but also the collective action that is reflected in organizational and community policies.

The vision reflects the range of benefits, from individual health and quality of life to societal gains in worker productivity and reduced health care costs. We're getting there, thanks to a growing foundation of research, immeasurable individual effort, and the unstoppable enthusiasm of initiatives like Let's Move.

How do your efforts complement the work of Let's Move!, the National Physical Activity Plan and other initiatives?

How can we activate more people to "think globally; act locally" to foster healthier lifestyles?

How do you get people to do what's good for them? Parents of young children may wrestle with getting them to eat vegetables or write thank-you cards for holiday gifts. (Some of us struggle with such things well into adulthood, hence our recurring New Year's resolutions.) Motivating people of every age to be physically active is an ongoing challenge, despite the familiar and well-documented benefits.

Lifestyle modifications can be a tough nut to crack. As parents of toddlers and teens know, it's important to consider how your message is conveyed, received and timed. There are no guarantees, as we humans are dazzlingly different from one another. Still, considering the mindset and predilections of those we talk to bumps up our chances of being heard and understood - and, ultimately, of persuading people to take action.

Research underlying the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans shows that exercise is good for individuals of any age or physical condition. Older adults, though, have distinct reasons to stay active, and calls for a special focus on fitness for individuals ages 50 and up. Muscle mass tends to decline with age, and age-related balance problems can lead to falls. Also, exercise improves coginition and fends off chronic diseases - thus affecting "secondary aging."

Mining the Data

So how do we encourage older adults to stay active?

Marketers know to bring tailored information to their target audiences? What they know about television viewer demographics leads to the placement of pick-up truck commercials during boxing matches and pharmaceutical ads during the nightly news. So to reach older adults, we need to think like marketers.

Consider the following from the 2010 Del Webb Baby Boomer Survey:

• More than half of all Boomers are more active than they were 15 years ago.
• The top reasons to exercise are to "optimize health," "improve appearance," "reduce stress," and "improve self-confidence."
• Boomers plan to retire later (age 67, say those turning 50) and continue working after retirement.
• Approximately 40 percent of Boomers have taken up a new hobby or activity in the last few years.
• 71 percent of younger Boomers and 60 percent of older Boomers participate in volunteer activities.

  

Other research tells us:

• Americans age 47 to 74 own the highest percentage of e-readers than any other age group (Pew Research Group)
• 57% of consumers age 55 and up prefer to bank online rather than in branches - a 20% increase between 2010 and 2011 (American Bankers Association)
• Older boomers and adults age 74+ are catching up to other age groups in their use of social networking sites, growing 360% and 400%, respectively, between 2008 and 2010 (Pew Research Center)

Lessons Learned

These data suggest strategies for reaching Boomers and their elders with appropriate and persuasive messages about being physically active. Show them how they can maintain health, work longer and enjoy life. Reach them through hobbies and volunteer activities. Include social media and other online channels in the mix. Remember to segment the audience - don't treat everyone born before 1965 as if they have the same interests, needs, and habits. The Internet, of course, is a bountiful resource for demographic data, and provides tips on marketing and communication.

Here's to a year of better health for all!

What do your insights about Boomers and older adults suggest by way of strategies to encourage them to be more physically active? How best to reach various segments of this expansive demographic?